The Green Party is calling on the Government to take responsibility for reducing inflation by taxing wealth instead of leaving RBNZ to continue hiking the Official Cash Rate.

“We know that inflation hits lower-income New Zealanders who spend the majority of their income covering the essentials like food and rent the hardest. We know that recessions also hit those same low-income people hardest, because they have smaller savings and tend to be in more precarious employment.

“Instead of relying on the Reserve Bank to use blunt economic tools to reduce demand, the Government can achieve far fairer outcomes by taxing wealth,” says Green Party revenue spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick.

“Last year the Reserve Bank admitted in response to my questions that they are engineering a recession.

“These decisions are not happening in a vacuum, but in response to Government policy that is not taking deflationary taxation measures.

“This leaves the same New Zealanders who shouldered the cost of getting through the pandemic to disproportionately carry the bill of recovery.

“Let’s be very clear: this is a political choice. It comes hot off the back of Government commissioned research that also paints a crystal clear image of immense wealth and tax inequity in this country.

“There’s a reason 52% of New Zealanders supported a wealth tax in Newshub polling last week. They know the system is not fair and the Greens are here to keep up the fight for them in the halls of power,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

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